Cullernose Point (February 2014)

The final venue on my trip to the Northumberland Coast in 2014 was Cullernose Point near to the village of Howick. I wasn’t going to include the photos from this part of trip as they weren’t the best...which was due to a combination of an early start to the day on Lindisfarne, some overcast skies and rain, the prospect of driving home, plus an annoying interruption from a photography workshop. 

I had waited for hours for the light to change at Cullernose Point and just as there was a break in the cloud, a minibus turned up and out piled a group of photographers with tripods. In their rush I got pushed aside as they all lined up for their shots. I politely enquired how long they were intending to stay and was told they were on a ‘workshop’ with a manner that suggested some sort of priority and importance. 

I was about to pack up and start the drive home when the group suddenly hot footed it back to their minibus and they were gone as quickly as they arrived. I had the place to myself again but I had lost the concentration, the mindful stage of photography that I enjoy the most.

For me, photography isn’t a team activity. I prefer the isolation of a deserted beach or moorland and I am happy to stand for hours waiting for the light to change, even if the outcomes are poor. I would even go as far a saying that photography is better for the times that things don’t work out as it adds value to the occasions when it all comes together. 

So, for the sake of completeness I will draw this series of posts from Northumberland in 2014 to a close with a selection from the final afternoon. The first set captures the high tide rolling over a field of dolerite boulders with Cullernoise Point in the background. 

During a rain break I spotted these lichen patterns on the wall next to where I had parked the car:

Just before the end of the day a slither of sunlight caught the top of the cliff and the final shot was a long exposure looking towards the fading light and Howick Bathhouse:

Surfaces, Textures and Colours (January 2020)

I have started this year's photography with a focus on surfaces and textures. Still to post are images of brick, metal, stone, fibreglass, wood and even mud!

A big part of photographing surfaces and textures is colour and I am often on the look out for certain colours or combinations of colour. For example, these images of gravestones in Nottingham’s General Cemetery where a chance encounter and I stopped when I spotted the acid yellow/green lichen set against the blues of the old gravestones. Broadly, these are complementary colours being opposite each other on an artist’s colour wheel and this type of combination makes the following compositions and final photographs more impactful:

Strawberry Hill - Part 2 (February 2018)

Locations like Strawberry Hill Heath are not picturesque in the traditional sense but there is a natural beauty in the detailed initimate landscape. Extracting this beauty, particularly in winter, is the photographic challenge, and on this ocassion I wanted draw out colour where I could find it, like the few remaining dried leaves hanging on to the trees providing glimpse of orange:

There is often colour in the wood of felled or fallen trees and then the vibrant colours of lichen and moss covered bark:

Whilst I like to look for colours and I also enjoy the leafless shape of winter trees. There is something very satisfying about branching patterns, sometimes there is a simple elegance and other times a mass of tangled complexity:

Quayside in Falmouth - Part 1

Whilst I am piecing together my series of autumn photographs taken along the Southwell Trail, this post  looks back to the summer and a selection of images taken around the quayside in Falmouth.

The quay is one of my favourite places to potter with a compact camera.There is so much detail to capture, different shapes and colours, and many reflections - it never really disappoints.

As the photographs were taken over a couple of months there are too many to load in one post so I will group them together in a number of themes starting with some bad weather reflections in the old harbour:

Also on the old harbour walls, were these mooring rings, chains and rusting iron bars. I particularly like the contrast of the rusty colours with the yellow lichen stonework: